![[Flag of the European Scouts]](../images/i/int-iugse.gif)
![[Flag of the European Scouts]](../images/i/int-iugse1.gif)
Flag of the UIGSE-FSE, square (original) and rectangular versions - Images by Zachary Harden, 2 May 2022
Last modified: 2023-06-10 by ivan sache
Keywords: scouts | international union of guides and scouts of europe | federation of european scouting | cross: (red) | fleur-de-lis (yellow) | baussant | joubert (pierre) |
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Flag of the UIGSE-FSE, square (original) and rectangular versions - Images by Zachary Harden, 2 May 2022
See also:
The "International Union of Guides and Scouts of Europe - Federation
of European Scouting" (UIGSE-FSE, Union Internationale des Guides et
Scouts d'Europe - Fédération du Scoutisme Européen) is an international association officially recognised by the Holy See (Pontifical Decree, 26 August 2003), with a participative status in the Council of Europe granted on 12 March 198 (as a NGO).
Incorporated in 1976, the UIGSE-FSE succeeded the FSE, which was
founded by a group of French and German chiefs in Cologne on 1
November 1956. In 1957, the FSE stated that it "recognises the full
value of Christian faith. It acts and makes decisions according to the
rules of this faith". Some groups and units that refused the religious
character of the association left, the most important of them being
the Dutch and English scouts association. The real founders of FSE are
Perig Géraud-Kearog and his wife Lizig, who joined the French
association in 1962, redacted a set of core texts and the "Charter of
natural and Christian principles of European scouting" (1965).The UIGSE-FSE is today an umbrella association grouping some 55,000
members from the national associations of Austria, Belgium, Belarus,
Canada (one Catholic and one Protestant association), Czech Republic,
France, Germany (one Catholic and one Protestant association),
Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Romania
(with Catholic and Orthodox members), Russia, Switzerland and Ukraine.
The association has its seat in Château-Landon, France.
Source: UIGSE-FSE website
Ivan Sache, 4 May 2008
The flag of UIGSE-FSE is vertically divided white-black with, in the
middle, the emblem of the association made of a red eight-pointed
cross charged with a yellow fleur-de-lis.
The website of the French association (Association Française des
Guides et Scouts d'Europe, AGSE) gives more details on the history
and symbolics of the flag. The flag is presented as the Étendard Baussant, a name recalling the Templars' standard. It was designed in 1966 during the pilgrimage
celebrating the millenium of the abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel, organized by the French branch of the FSE. A reenaction
of the Nebrews' exodus was performed: the "Hebrews", waving white
flags symbolizing the light, crossed the bay and reached the abbey,
followed by the "Egyptians", waving black flag symbolizing darkness.
At the end of the ceremony, the white and black flags were sewn
together and the cross symbolizing the movement (described as "the red
cross charged with the golden fleur-de-lis") was placed in the middle.
The white fimbriation around the part of the cross located in the
black field of the flag recalls that the Light always wins over the
Dark.
The emblem of the European Scouts was designed by the founders of the
movement in 1956 in Cologne. The statutes of the UIGSE-FSE says:
The common emblem to all the associations members of the Union shall be the eight-pointed red cross of the abbey of Morimond (commonly called 'cross of the Hospitalier Order of Saint John of Jerusalem'), charged with a fleur-de-lis or symbolizing scoutism.
The Jesuit father Jacques Sevin (1882-1951), founder of the Scouts de
France on 25 July 1920, already used the eight-pointed cross as the
emblem of one of his first scouts' units, founded in Lille. The design of the
emblem was definitively established by Pierre Joubert in 1957, who
fixed the design of the fleur-de-lis and harmonized it with the cross.
The designer Pierre Joubert (1910-2002) is credited of more than
15,000 works and of the illustration of more than 1,000 books; he has
remained famous for his scouts' calendars and the covers of the books
of the series Signe de Piste, founded in 1937 to publish "scouts' novels".
The original "baussant" of IUGSE-FSE is square, but it is sometimes
made with 2:3 proportions.
Ivan Sache, 4 May 2008
![[Flag of the European Scouts]](../images/i/int-iugse2.gif)
![[Flag of the European Scouts]](../images/i/int-iugse3.gif)
Flag of the UIGSE-FSE, square (original) and rectangular versions - Images by Zachary Harden, 2 May 2022
On some flags, the white fimbriation separating the cross from the black background is omitted. (Source and source)
Ivan Sache, 4 May 2008
![[Flag of the European Scouts]](../images/i/int-iugse4.gif)
![[Flag of the European Scouts]](../images/i/int-iugse5.gif)
Flag of the UIGSE-FSE, square (original) and rectangular versions - Images by Zachary Harden, 2 May 2022
